Tag stringing apparatus



Nov. 18, 1958 H. SCHAERER 2,850,587

TAG STRINGING APPARATUS Filed June 27, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 $C/1HER R Nov. 18, 1958 H. SCHAERER TAG STRINGING APPARATUS 5 Shets-Sheet 2 Filed June 27, 1956 J i M 54/1552 2 Nov. 18, 1958 H. scl lAERER Q TAG STRINGING APPARATUS Filed June 27, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Nov. 18, 1958 H. SCHAERER TAG STRINGING APPARATUS 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 27, 1956 1958 H. SCHAERER 2,s@@,5s7

TAG STRINGING APPARATUS Filed June 27, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 so 6/ 95a 64 68 6.6

M.- an ma /25 United States Patent TAG STRINGING APPARATUS Henri Schaerer, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Application June 27, 1956, Serial No. 594,211

Claims priority, application Switzerland July 1, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 1122) In the manufacture of labels or tags provided with a fastening thread, so far it has been customary to manually pass said thread through a hole in the label. Said hole was pierced either by hand or, in the case of stamped labels, obtained by a special boss of the stamping die. In the latter case, the price of the die is substantially raised by this single boss.

My invention aims to remedy this situation and relates to an apparatus for piercing a film material and simultaneously passing a thread therethrough. My present apparatus is characterized by a piercing needle which has an eye for the thread, and by a thread-drawing needle which is clamped to the piercing-needle portion situated behind said eye and which has a pointed tip projecting into this eye.

Prior attempts to solve this problem had not been successful, until I succeeded in overcoming the difiiculties by combining the thread-drawing needle with the piercing needle.

One form of the invention is shown, by way of example, in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows in elevation, partly in vertical section, a needle holder in which are fixed the piercing needle and the thread-drawing needle;

Fig. 2 illustrates the apparatus in elevation, certain parts on the upper and lower ends having been broken away, as they are not relevant for a clear understanding of the invention;

Figs. 3 and 4 depict an appurtenant side elevation and top plan view respectively;

Fig. 5 shows a detail in vertical section of the gripper device, taken along the line VV of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 shows in elevation, partly in vertical section, a complementary device for bringing the endsof the thread piece together; in contradistinction to Fig. 2, the movable parts are shown in that position which they occupy when the thread is severed;

Fig. 7 is a top plan view, partly in horizontal section, and

Fig. 8 shows a cross-section on the line VIII-VIII of Fig. 6 and depicts in dash-and-dot lines the position of certain movable parts after leading to each other the ends of the thread piece..

A vertical column 1 has the form of a shaft with a continuous key 2 and at its lower end is fixed in a pedestal (not shown). A table 3 with a clip 4 is attached by means of a screw 5 to column 1 approximately at midheight thereof (see Fig. 3). To the upper end of the column is attached a bearing (not shown) for a guide roller rotatable about a horizontal axis, over which roller is trained a cable 6 of which one run at the column bottom is connected to a pedal, and the other run is connected to a tension spring. Below the guide-roller hearing a support 7 is secured to column 1 by means of a screw 8 (see Fig. 2). This support carries a threadcutting device A and an appurtenant actuating mechanism, as will be explained later on. A slide 9 is mounted on column 1 to be vertically movable on the portion "ice thereof extending between said support 7 and table 3. needle holder 10 detachably secured to this slide 9 isp'rovided with a vertical throughbore into which fit a piercing needle B and a slightly thinner resilient thread-drawing needle C, said two needles being clamped by means of a screw 11.. A second slide 12 is mounted on the column to be vertically movable on the portion thereof extending downwardly from the table 3 and carries a gripper. device D.

Piercing needle B has an eye 13 and a longitudinal groove which extends in the needle shaft up from said. eye and in which is accommodated a portion of the circular cross section of thread-drawing needle C. The lat: ter has a pointed tip 14 situated in the center of eye 13.

Before describing details of the various mechanisms and their mode of operation, a summary will first be given below of the overall mode of operation of the apparatus.

In the inoperative position, slide 9 is situated so high on column 1 that tip 15 of piercing needle B is located only a small distance above the shearing plane of cutting device A. Upon depressing the pedal after a thread 15 has been drawn through eye 13 from left to right (Figs. 1 and 2), from a supply bobbin (not shown), the descending cable run moves slide 9, which is secured thereto, downwardly, while the ascending cable strand moves slide 12, which is secured thereto, upwardly, for the same distance. At the very commencement of its downstroke together with slide 9, tip 14 of needle C stabs thread 16, thereby preventing the latter from sliding outward of eye 13 and thus drawing the thread downwardly during its entire downward travel. in the last portion of the latter, needle B pierces ala-bel E which is held on table 3 against a stop 17, whereupon the short threadflend which protrudes from needle eye 13, by virtue of its resilience automatically accommodates itself between the jaws of the open gripper D. Upon releasing the pedal, the spring. returns cable 6. At the very commencement of the downstroke of slide 12, which now takes place, gripper D closes upon thread end and pulls thread 16 downwardly, while the needles B and C at the same time move upwardly together with slide 9. It is readily seen that thread 16 now is not prevented by needle C from sliding onward through the eye of needle B which is moving upwardly. As soon as, during such upstroke, needle tip 15 passes through the horizontal shearing plane of cutting device A, the latter, in a manner yet to be described, is swung towards the thread, and immediately thereafter the movable knife of device A is quickly swung in one direction and thread 16 cut thereby a short distance below needle point 15 so that only a short end will protrude from eye 13. The operaation of swinging the cutting device A out of the path of the needles B and C takes place at the very commencement of the next-following down stroke of slide 9. During such downstroke, the knife is swung back and a spring is tensioned which upon its release moves the knife to cut the thread,

The details are described in the following description.

In a vertical bore of support 7 is secured the neckeddown upper portion of a bearing bolt 18, on the lower portion of which is pivotably mounted a two-arm supporting lever 19. A torsion spring 20 'is arranged and constrained to move the latter counterclockwise (Fig. 4) so that a roller 22 mounted between a pair of lateral eyes 21 of lever 19 continually contacts a control face of a rail 23 which is secured by screws to a lateral extension of slide 9. Said control face on its lower portion has a boss, so that in the last portion of the upstroke of slide 9 the lever 19 is moved clockwise. The degree of such angular movement is so selected that the knives of threadcutting device A sufficiently engage thread 16.

On a bearing pin 24 seated in a bore of lever 19 is mounted by screws an upper knife 25 which comprises a segmental group of cutting teeth and a threaded bore, while lever 19 comprises a segmental group of bores in concentric relation to pin 24. Through one of the latter bores is passed a set screw 26 which is engaged in the threaded bore of knife 25. After screw 26 has been removed, knife may be angularly moved through one or more divisions in order to bring a pair of blunt knives out of their operative position and a pair of sharp knives into such position. On pin 24 is pivotally mounted a lower knife 27 which by a compression spring 23 is urged against the stationary upper knife. On the rear portion of knife 27 is pivotally mounted a block 29 which by a set screw 30 is coupled to a connecting rod 31 which in turn is articulated to an actuating pin 32. The latter is longitudinally movable in bores of two downwardly directed eyes 33 of lever 19. On pin 32 is fixed a clip 34' which carries a roller 35. A biased compression spring 36 mounted between clip 34 and the exterior eye 33 serves to so move pin 32 that roller abuts against the coritrol face 37 of a control rail 33 which is secured by screw to the lateral extension of slide 1'. On the in terior eye 33 is mounted a pawl 39 which by a torsion spring 40 is held in the inoperative position shown in which said pawl retains pin 32 by coaction with clip 34. Only when slide 9 approaches its top terminal position and thread 16 is to be cut, a thrust screw 41 adjustably secured to the lower bent-over end of rail 38 acts on pawl 39 to release pin 32 which then under the action of spring 36 .angularly moves the movable knife 27 by means of connecting rod 31 to cut the thread. During the following downstroke of slide 9, pawl 39 first rests on the lower surface of the clip and only in the last portion of said downstroke pin 32 through the action of the rising portion of control face 37 onto roller 35 is pushed back so far thatthe pawl can snap behind clip 34.

The lower slide 12 has a bored and longitudinally slotted eye provided with a clamping screw 42 to adjustably retain an intermediate piece 43 having a similar eye with clamping screw for holding a carrier pin 44. An upper gripper jaw 45 by means of a sunk screw 46 (Fig. 5) is secured to the upper end of pin 44 on which is mounted a longitudinally movable sleeve 47 which is integral with a lower gripper jaw. To said sleeve is secured a stud screw 48 which extends through a pair of diametrically opposite slots 49 of pin 44 which in its upper portion has a longitudinal blind hole 50 'in which is inserted a compression spring 51. The latter serves to move upwardly sleeve 47 or the lower gripper jaw respectively, thereby to close gripper D. The latter in the upper terminal portion of the path of slide 12 is opened, for the purpose of receiving the short thread end as explained above, in that a lateral nose 52 of sleeve 47 abuts against a stop screw 53 disposed on the underside of table 3 and retained thereby. Gripper D is opened at the lower end of the path of slide 12, for the purpose of releasing the tautened thread 16, in that a two-arm lever 54 which is mounted in a bearing fork 55 of the eye of slide 12, abuts against a stationary stop screw 56 (which is disposed further downward than shown in Fig. 2) and thereby is angularly moved on account of the still continuing downstroke of slide 12, and thus acts on a second nose 57 of sleeve 47.

The form of invention described above could be changed in many respects. For example, a simple form is feasible as an apparatus adapted to be held in the users hand and which does not comprise a cutting device nor a p r- "In most cases it is advantageous to provide the apparams with an auxiliary device adapted to grip the ends of the'thread piece sufficiently early and to lead said ends together, preferably while pulling the label away from the point at which it has been pierced, so that the user can interknot said ends with two fingers of one hand.

Saidauxiliary device is shown in Figs. 6 to 8 and comprisesa supporting and guiding tube 60 of which one end is fixed in a boss 3a provided on the underside of table 3 and which has two diametrically opposite rectilinear longitudinal slots 61 which extend from a point spaced from the table towards the tube end remote from the table. A crosspin 62 extends through said slots 61 and through boreholes of a sleeve 63 and another sleeve 64 to prevent these sleeves from rotation. Sleeve 64 is mounted on sleeve 63 and has a semi-cylindrical extension 64a towards table 3, which is supplemented by a semicylindrical segment 65. Two supplementary semicylindrical segments 66 are engaged in interior annular grooves of extension 6411 and of segment 65 and also in an exterior annular groove of a bushing 67. An open annular spring 63 prevents the parts 65, 66 from dropping away and forms together with the latter and sleeve 64, a device which forces bushing 67 to move axially together with sleeve 63, but permits bushing 67 to rotate on tube 60. Pin 62 also extends through a crossbore of a small piston 70. A tension spring 71 anchored to said piston and to a cross.- pin 72 which passes through the free end of tube 60, serves to move the slide formed by sleeve 63 and bushing 67 away from table 3. To piston 70, however, also is secured one end of a cable 73 which is trained over a guide roller 74 mounted on the underside of table 3 and which at its other end is clamped to a lateral extension 12a of slide 12 which carries gripper D. At each downstroke of the latter, therefore, sleeve 63 and bushing 67 are moved towards table 3, and vice-versa.

To bushing 67 is fixed, by a set screw, the bosslike portion of a pivotable arm 75, and on said bushing moreover is pivotably mounted the bosslike portion 78:: of a pivotable arm 76. The latter is not axially movable on bushing 67, as it is disposed between the bosslike portion of arm 75 and a pinion 78 which by a set screw 77 is secured to bushing 67. Boss 76a is surrounded by the turns of a torsion spring 79 of which the end-arms engage the pivotable arms 75 and 76 and serves to swing the latter into the position of spread shown by solid lines in Fig. 8. Said position of spread is adjustable by adjusting a stop screw 112 carried on arm 75 and abutting against arm 76. To the end of each arm 75, 76 is secured, by means of a clip 80, a carrier 81 of gripper spring tongues 82, 83 of which one, viz. 83, is urged (by a mechanism yet to be described) with its end against that of the other and later on is again disengaged therefrom. Said mechanism and the mechanism for angularly moving the arms 75, 76 operate as follows.

First a pair of gripper spring tongues 82, 83 has to grip the portion 16a of thread 16 drawn through label E, close togripper D and shortly before the latter opens. Substantially at the same time, the other pair of gripper spring tongues 82, 83 has to grip the piece of thread below the cutting device A which at this moment-is operating. Subsequently, during the next downstroke of the needles B, C and upstroke of slide 12 with gripper D, when bushing 67 together with the arms 75, 76 is moved laterally, the latter first have to remain spread apart in order for the thread piece 16a and label E to run out of a slot 84 of table 3 (see Fig. 7). In the last portion of their lateral movement, the pivotable arms have to be swung towards each other to the position shown in Fig. 8 by dash-and-dot lines, for the purpose of leading together the ends of thread piece 16a which then can be drawn away by two fingers of one of the operators hands and interknotted. The operator already has put on the table a new label behind the outgoing label against stop 17, and this new label in the meantime has been pierced by the descending needle B (position as shown in Fig. 2). During the following upstroke of the needles B, C and downstroke of gripper D together with thread 16, the arms 75, 76 have to be spread apart again and the ends of the gripper spring tongue pairs have a ain to be detached from each other. v

The mechanism for swinging the arms 75, 76 is constructed as follows: In a bearing 85 secured to table 3 is rotatably but axially immovably mounted a square shaft 86 (see Fig. '7). To the latter is fixed an arm 87 which in the last portion of the downstroke of slide 9, which carries the needles B and C, is struck and actuated by a roller 88 which is mounted on a cantiliver 89, 90 of slide 9 (see Fig. 6). Arm 87 then rotates shaft 86 together with a gearwheel 91 secured thereto in an axially movable relation, said gearwheel being mounted by means of two ball bearings 92 in a divided bearing 93, 94. The latter is carried by a cantilever 95 of which a boss 95a is fixed to sleeve 63. The lower bearing portion 93 comprises a guide groove 93a for a rack 96 which is in mesh with gear-wheel 91 and through a web 97 is rigidly connected to two racks 98, 99. Rack 98 is engaged by the pinion 78 which through bushing 67 is secured to arm 75. On the diametrically opposite side, rack 99 coacts with a toothed portion 76b of the boss 76a on arm 76. It will be readily seen from Fig. 8 that on actuation of arm 87 by roller 88, the envisaged angular movements of the arms 75, 76 towards each other is attained. The spreading-apart movement of these arms is controlled by the same roller 88, but executed by spring 79.

The mechanism for moving the gripper spring tongues 83 is constructed as follows: Each of the arms 75, 76 comprises two bowl-shaped lugs for a ball bearing. In the two ball bearings of each arm is mounted rotatably but axially immovably a shaft 100. To the exterior shaft end is fixed an arm 101 which through a screw 102 is capable of pushing against the respective gripper spring tongue 83 to clamp fast the respective thread-piece end. On the other end of shaft 100 is mounted a two-arm member 103 which is provided with a ball 104. The latter under the action of a spring 105 snaps into one or the other of two dents 106, of which in Fig. 7 only one is visible, in order to prevent a loose movement of the structural parts 83, 100 and 103. The movement of the latter in the sense of pressing the free end of gripper spring tongue 83 against that of gripper spring tongue 82, is effected in the very last portion of the movement of the parts 63, 67, 75, 76, 82 and 83 towards table 3 and thread piece 16a which has not yet been severed, when the arm 103a of member 103 abuts against a corresponding stop screw 107 which is adjustably mounted in a corresponding flange 3b of table 3. The gripper spring tongues stay pressed against each other by virtue of said click lock means during the movement of the arms 75, 76 to the left (Fig. 6) and also during the major portion of their movement to the right. The arm 1031) of member 103 then through a rib 1030 provided thereon abuts against the tail 108a of a tilting member 108 which by means of a pin 109 is mounted in a longitudinal slot of a pin 110 secured to table 3, and which member 108 at this moment is supported on the intermediate portion of a wire spring 111 secured to table 3. During movement to the left (Fig. 6) rib 1030 is capable to angularly move member 108, since the latter then is supported on the free and, thus, yieldable end of spring 111.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for piercing film-like material and simultaneously passing a thread therethrough, comprising a piercing needle having a longitudinal groove and an eye for the thread formed therein, a thread-drawing needle clamped to a portion of said piercing needle lying behind said eye thereof and projecting into said eye by a pointed tip; a needle holder, said thread-drawing needle being located with a portion of the cross-section thereof in said longitudinal groove of said piercing needle, said piercing needle and said thread-drawing needle being detachably clamped together to said needle holder; a first and a second slide, a supporting and guiding column, a table for putting the film material to be pierced thereon, a thread cutting device above said table, said needle holder being secured to said first slide, said first slide being vertically movable on said supporting and guiding column, said column also carrying said table, said thread cutting device and said second slide; a thread-drawing gripper, said second slide being guided below said table by said column and carrying said gripper; an actuating mechanism for vertically moving said first and said second slide towards each other and away from each other on said column for automatically controlling a plurality of devices in cooperation with stationary parts of the apparatus, one of said devices being operative to open said gripper at a first time shortly before said second slide attains its topmost position to close the gripper again during the subsequent downstroke of said second slide to grip the thread end projecting through said eye of said piercing needle and draw up said thread end, and to temporarily open said gripper upon said second slide reaching the lower terminal position; a second of said devices being operative to swing in the thread cutting device at a position immediately below the tip of the piercing needle, and a third of said devices being operative to tension a spring which acts on a pin to actuate the cutting device, said pin being detained by a pawl which is released immediately upon angular movement of the cutting device.

2. An apparatus for piercing a film-like material and simultaneously passing a thread therethrough, comprising a piercing needle formed with an eye therein for said thread; a thread-drawing needle clamped to a portion of said piercing needle lying behind said eye therein, said thread-drawing needle having a pointed tip projecting into said eye; means for cutting a thread piece from a thread supply after said thread piece was drawn through said film-like material; paired gripper means for automatically gripping said thread piece at the two ends thereof and bringing the same together into relatively parallel disposition ready for interknotting; a table to serve as support for said film-like material during piercing of same, said gripper means being operative to carry said thread piece together with said film-like material away from said table in the course of bringing together said thread-piece ends; a supporting and guiding column, a first and a second slide movable upward and downward on said column, actuating mechanism for moving said first and said second slide, said first slide carrying said piercing and said thread-drawing needle, said second slide carrying said thread-drawing grippers; a stationary horizontal guiding member, a third slide longitudinally movable on said member and kinematically coupled to one of said two slides, two angularly movable arms rotatably, but nondisplaceably mounted on the third slide and each carrying a pair of gripper spring tongues, means controlled by one of said two slides and including a restoring spring, to angularly move said arms and said tongues so as to bring together the thread-piece ends when moving the third slide away from the table, and vice-versa, and means actuated by the movement of the third slide and adapted to urge one of said tongues of each of said arms towards the other to close the grippers about the thread-piece ends.

References \Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 634,698 Nasch Oct. 10, 1899 1,513,898 Fleckser Nov. 4, 1924 2,088,865 McRoskey Aug. 3, 1937 2,504,974 Golden Apr. 25, 1950 2,652,013 Wanzer et al. Sept. 15, 1953 2,737,913 Kline Mar. 13, 1956 

